If you are using many applications at the same time in Windows 7 OS, your desktop gets really messy. When you try to minimize them one by one, of course it takes a lot of time and sometimes you accidently close few windows.
Sometimes you need to take a look at both windows at the same time. That means you need both of them open and visible. With all these you need to quickly minimize and maximize windows may be using shortcuts.
Here I’m going to present you some tips to manage and solve all the above problems using advanced features in Windows 7 OS.
Shake to Minimize
Click and hold the window that you want to work with from title bar.
While you are holding the click shake the window.
You will see, all the other windows are getting minimized. It’s easy as that.
Do this again to reverse the effect.
At the end of task bar, next to clock, you can find the show desktop button.
It will minimize all the opened windows with one click.
Mouse Gesture for Minimize and Maximize
Click and hold a window from its title bar and push it to the top edge of desktop.
It will get maximized.
Drag it back from the top edge. It will go back to original size.
Same way, push the window to left or right edge.
Windows get exactly half size of desktop and align to edge.
Using this you can open two windows in left and right side of the desktop.
Use Window key + arrow keys to get the same task done with keyboard, without touching mouse.
Switch Windows
From the windows XP time we used alt+tab combination keys to switch opened windows. You can still use that. But if you want it with a graphical preview use window key + tab.
Long awaited Google Drive is out there and lots of people are using it as a personal cloud storage service already. If you are using lots of Google products this would be an ideal solution for you with its seamless integration.
Few days ago I was talking about how to start using Google Drive and relevant information about using file syncing client.
Quick Catch-up
Getting Started With Google Drive
Today we are going to focus on how to manage sharing in Google Drive. If you were using previous versiosn of Google Drive which was called as Google Docs this would be nothing new to you as it operates the same way.
Email Collaboration and Attachment
Whenever you want to share a file with someone else, normally what you do is send it as an Email attachment. Sometimes you face problems with attaching big files using your web browser. Google Drive gives you a solid solution.
Setup Google Drive file syncing client following the instructions in previous article.
Drag and Drop the file that you need to send as Email attachment to local Google Drive folder.
Wait till they get uploaded.
Google Drive system tray icon will indicate the progress of uploading.
Then go to Google Drive web.
Right click on the file -> Share -> Email as Attachment.
It will give you a mail composing window with file attachment.
Type the sender’s email address and Contact suggestion will work here same as in Gmail.
Fill in the subject, message and hit send.
If you and few other people are working on the same document, sending it in email attachment is not a Good solution. Then every time someone makes modification you have to manually integrate it with the final version of the file.
In this kind of situation what you actually need is collaborative editing of the file and Google Drive has this feature built in.
Make sure all the documents are in Google Drive folder and properly synced.
Go to Google Drive web.
Right click on the file -> Share -> Email collaborators.
Here you can add people to the file as collaborators by providing their email address.
You can choose them from your contact list or auto suggestions.
Set the privilege to collaborator as can edit, can comment or can view.
Check Notify people via email.
Finally Click Share and Save.
Now depending on the given privilege collaborators can edit, comment or view the file right there in Google Drive.
Share with Link and Public Sharing
The best thing in cloud Storage is, whenever you have to send a file to someone, you don’t have to use email attachment or anything, you can just send the link. Google drive is also providing very flexible features to share files with people who are not even using Google Drive.
Hats off for the Google team, they have made this really simple and highly secured at the same time.
Go to Google Drive web.
Right click on the file or folder than need to be shared.
Go to Share -> Share
In the “who has access” list as the first item you can see the file visibility scope. By default it’s private. That means, only you can explicitly share person can access it.
To widen the visibility, click on change.
There you have another 2 options.
Anyone with the link, create non-searchable, non-editable public link. You can share this with anyone.
Public on the web create searchable, non-editable public link.
Here also you can set the access privileges as can edit, can comment or can view.
After clicking save button you will be able to see the sharing URL.
You can send it to anyone via G+, email, Facebook or Twitter.
The best thing about Google Drive is the entire user interfaces are well streamlined and highly user-friendly. Anyone from any background would be able to use this tool with no trouble like any other Google product.
The best and unique part of Google Drive, online document editing is coming up in next article. Stay tuned with Notes Of Genius.
If you are using a iPad Wi Fi you know how limited it is when you are travelling or not around a Wi Fi hotspot. In such a situation iPad will become just a dead display without life since most of the activities you do with your iPad need active internet connection.
The solution is getting an iPad 3G. Good, it works but you have to pay nearly $150 extra. If you are a frequent traveler still you’d be willing to pay extra and get a 3G or LTE version.
But, if you look around very carefully there is an amazingly simple and low cost solution for this problem. It comes as Mi Fi router which is a mobile Wi Fi hotspot.
What is a Mi Fi Router?
To connect to 3G data networks on the go you might have used an USB HSDPA modem. There you have to insert your SIM card and through USB port your Laptop can connect to internet.
iPad comes with USB interface, but unfortunately there are no drivers for you to use this device with iPad or any other tablet.
Mi Fi router is almost as same as your USB HSDPA modem. Only difference here is it’s not using USB connectivity but Wi Fi. Since its using universal protocol any Wi Fi enabled device can connect to a Mi Fi router and access internet. It comes with built in USB chargeable battery.
When you want to access internet, all you have to do is enter your 3G SIM card, switch on Mi Fi router and connect to it using iPad Wi Fi. Then it act as a Wi Fi hot spot and let you access internet where ever you go as long as you have coverage.
How to Setup?
Setting up Mi Fi router is easy and any non techy person would be able to do it.
Contact your mobile service provider and get a Mi Fi router with 3G data package.
Charge Mi Fi router properly and switch it on.
It will automatically connect to internet and wait for Wi Fi clients.
Now switch on your iPad, and then switch on its Wi Fi connection.
Search for devices and connect to Mi Fi router.
Keep both the devices close by. Now your iPad Wi Fi is practically a iPad 3G.
Now access internet using iPad.
Most of the Mi Fi routers support up to 5 devices. So you can easily share the same internet connection with your room mates as well. And of course this will save lots of money that you have to spend to buy an iPad 3G.
Of course Mi Fi router will work with any Android tablet or Smartphone as well.
Most of the mobile service provides such as Three, Telstar and Vodafone provide this service and there are different packages. Some of the contracts will give you the Mi Fi modem for free.
Normally Mi Fi router is having 5 hours of battery life. If you are already using a Mi Fi router share your experience about battery life, signal strength and other issues with us.
Within the past few years Dropbox has become a day to day essential for many people. I never knew such an easy way to store, backup and share files. But the major problem is limited storage in Dropbox. They are giving only 2GB for free. In case you need to expand, it’s expensive compared to other services.
However Dropbox is rewarding you for spreading the word. They give extra 500MB of space for every new Dropbox user you introduce. In this way you can earn up to 16GB of space in Dropbox.
16GB is a good deal and so far we never spent a penny. But, what if you need even more storage? Here we go with the solution.
Dropbox Space Race
This is special program conducted by Dropbox itself to give more space to academic institutions. All you have to do is go to Space Race page and enter your school email address. (must be a .edu one) After that ask all your fellow students to do the same. Then everyone in your school will get extra space in Dropbox up to 25GB.
Guys this is a race. If you manage to get more students from your school to space race, more points you get. More points mean more space for whole school for two years. Make sure everyone completes the ‘get started’ guide to earn extra points.
When you go to Dropbox space race page, you will be able to see a leader board with schools and universities with most number of space racers.
Social Media Connection
You can simply get few extra MBs by connecting Facebook and Twitter profile to Dropbox account. Each connection will give you extra 125MB. If you follow Dropbox in twitter, it will give you another 125MB. If you like to give a compliment to Dropbox team, it adds another 125MB. After that tweeting the message will give you another 125MB. All together it’s 625MB. Not too bad isn’t it?
I have earned 16.9GB of Dropbox space so far. Start earning your free space right away.
Smartphone market is hot and presenting innovative technologies every week. Previously the main objective of handset manufacturers was to develop the hardware muscle, but recently developers have focused on greater level of performance optimization which is a positive trend.
Apple is always coming up with trend setting Smartphone. The credit of polishing up touch screen, fitting it in to a Smartphone and making it usable by any average person, goes to them with no argument. iPhone 4 was a blast and main attraction was retina display and Siri. 4S continue the trend with further improved multimedia capabilities.
Now it’s high time for Apple to introduce next iPhone probably iPhone 5. Compared to other handsets in market iPhone is having lesser powerful hardware configuration, but its performance is amazing. This is due to extreme performance optimization in iOS and now we have iOS 6. If they manage to increase the hardware configuration, next iPhone will be able to do magic. In addition they will focus on improving build quality as well.
Quick Catch-up
Here I’m trying to predict what will be there in next iPhone, hardware, software and other features to compete with other handsets in the market as well as surprise the hardcore Apple fans.
Expected Configuration
Design
iPhone 4S came with metal and glass body. Glass layer was there to give it a smooth surface. I don’t expect major design change in next iPhone, but construction material will be vastly different. They will probably stop using glass and use liquid metal to get the smoother finish. It will be lighter, stronger and durable. If they can add gorilla glass in to picture, it will be perfect.
Quick Catch-up
iPhone 5 with Liquid Metal Body
Processor and Storage
Storage options would be 16, 32 and 64GB as usual. But there is a possibility for them to introduce 128 GB version for heavy multimedia users. There won’t be expandable storage as the last thing Apple want is horrible user experience just because of a poor quality microSD card. RAM would be 1 GB and it’s a long awaited improvement for iPhone.
So far, even for the most advanced products such as The new iPad they were using dual core processors. They were achieving great performance by optimizing operating system and software platform. But it’s high time to move to a Quad core processor, possibly named as Apple A6 and it will be on iPhone 5. This will open a lot more creative space for application developers, especially in multimedia and gaming.
Operating System
Apple already has their iOS 6 with lots of new features. The main problem I see in iOS is less customizability which is limiting its users in a frame. In other hand more customizability leads to unpredictable performance issuers. I hope they will find the fine balance in next iPhone.
Display
iPhone 4S came with great display with good pixel density and color accuracy. But in next iPhone Apple will include 720p display most probably. But for this they have to increase the screen size and display won’t be usable with one hand. I have a very strong feeling that at least they will increase screen size up to 4 inch. If it will be a HD display pixel density will be approximately 367 ppi which is a super retina display.
Connectivity and Interfaces
When it comes to connectivity there is nothing much for them to do. However LTE radio is a must along with 2G, 3G and HSDPA. Other than that there will be Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB 3.0, GPS and high chance for NFC as well.
Camera
iSight camera is already good enough to compete with other cameras in Smartphone. I don’t expect them to improve hardware configuration other than open the aperture to f/2.2. Camera application could use some polishing up such as in built panorama mode.
Battery Life
There are a very lesser chances that Apple will include a larger battery in next iPhone. It will increase the device weight as well as the charging time. Instead they will try to save battery life strategically and programmatically. They will optimize OS to consume lesser battery power and perform more work. Further, there might be an option to shutdown CPU cores when they are idle.
Possible Market Impact
Even when Apple launch iPhone 4S, they didn’t have significant market competition. But within last few months lots of advanced Smartphone came in to market. Most of them are Android powered and having Quad Core processor, advanced chipsets and 12 Core GPU.
By the time Apple introduce their next iPhone they will have to face serious market competition especially with Google’s Android and Samsung Handsets. iPhone sales have already dropped by nearly 25%. So they have to get everything perfect and give a huge surprise to users.
No doubt that the next iPhone will be a huge competition to other handset manufactures and mobile operation systems. They also will take this very serious and make plans to have their territory in the market by introducing exceptional Smartphone. As Smartphone users we will be able to enjoy technological cold war for sure in this year.
With the latest Google Galaxy Nexus 7, they set a trend for good quality yet very low priced android tablets. Many other manufactures try to compete in this market in near future with tablets with competitive price. After Nexus 7, the next low cost tablet you will be able to find in the market is Archos 97 Carbon.
Quick Catch-up
Google Nexus 7 – Unwrapping Android Jelly Bean
I believe that most of the Android tablet’s hardware is over upgraded and, today we are suffering its consequences such as overheating and poor battery life. With latest version of Android they are trying to optimize the OS core rather than increasing the hardware muscle to achieve optimum performance level. Archos 97 Carbon is setting a positive trend for average level android tablets in the market and today it’s under NOG spotlight.
Device Configuration
Processor and Storage
Device is powered with Single Core1GHz ARM Cortex A8 processor. Details about the chipset and GPU are not stated in the official website. RAM is 1 GB and internal storage is 16 GB. If you want more space there is a microSDHC card slot support up to 32 GB.
Operating System
Archos 97 Carbon is packed with AndroidIce Cream Sandwich. If you take a closer look in to the UI you will be able to find minor tweaking such as on screen volume controller. Other than that it’s stock android which I consider as a plus point. You will be able to enjoy all the standard options in android ICS.
Display
Display is 9.7 inch IPS panel having 1024 x 768 pixels which gives you 131 ppi pixel density. Capacitive multi touch sensor is capable of identifying up to five fingers.
Connectivity and Interfaces
Device comes with most of basic connectivity features such as Wi-Fi, USB 2.0 and mini HDMI port. However there are no signs of Bluetooth connectivity. GSM and HSDPA radio is also removed as a cost cutting strategy. If you like to enjoy music with your headphone there is a 3.5 mm audio out.
Camera
Primary camera is 2 MP one which is capable of capturing stills and videos. There is a front facing VGA camera for video conferencing. There is no LED flash to shoot in dark and again a result of cost reducing.
Battery Life
Archos 97 Carbon is having Lithium polymer battery which can power up the device for 8 hours when you are enjoying videos and it goes up to 20 hours if it’s only audio playback.
Wrapping Up
After looking at the specification you might say this device is old school. But this is the hardware specification in iPad 2 which is one of the most used tablets even today. Due to the performance bottlenecks in previous version of Android they could not utilize this sort of hardware. That’s why manufactures continue to introduce dual core and quad core tablets and they came with big price tags.
On Archos 97 carbon you will be able to do most of the day to day work such as eBook reading, web browsing, social media and multimedia playback. It comes with a great price tag too. Once it comes to the market for this 9.7 inch tablet, you have to pay only $249.99. If you can upgrade the device to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean it would work great as iPad 2 or may be better.
Few days ago I was talking about one of the most popular Android tablet which is Amazon Kindle Fire and now they have released a new tablet with HD display. But that’s not the whole story.
They set the trend of 7 inch tablet and made it viral. Now they have come up with a full HD Android tablet and planning to make it viral with an amazing price tag. The device I’m going to talk about is Amazon Kindle HD 8.9 which is under NOG Spotlight today
Features Highlight
Display
This is the main attraction here. Its IPS panel with 1920 x 1200 px resolution will give it 254 ppi of pixel density. The capacitive touch sensor is capable of accepting 10 finger input at the same time. This is very rare among Android tablets, a true full HD display.
Processor and Storage
In Kindle Fire HD 8.9 you can find slightly improved hardware specification than 7 inch version. Processor is 1.5 GHzDual Core running on TI OMAP 4470 chipset and GPU is PowerVR SGX544. It’s a Perfect combination for a high end high resolution Android tablet.
Internal storage is 16/32 GB, but non expandable since there you can’t find a microSD card slot. RAM is 1 GB which is pretty much standard for Smartphone as well as high end tablets.
Operating System
Same as all other Kindle devices, Fire HD 8.9 is also coming with Android 4.0. Again it’s highly customized and Amazon branded.
Camera
Making a big change to Kindle Fire, they include a 1.3 MP front facing camera in Kindle Fire HD. They have included same hardware in Kindle Fire HD 8.9 as well.
Connectivity
There are two versions of Kindle Fire HD 8.9. The basic version is not having GSM or LTE radio. It’s bundled with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and USB 2.0. Another version is coming with built-in LTE and GSM radio. So you can access data networks through HSDPA or lightning fast LTE.
As long as it’s having GSM quad band support, you should be able to make calls with it. If it won’t come with Android dialer, you can always install it manually. To verify that, you have to wait till it hits the market.
Battery Life
Same as Kindle Fire HD, the specification of battery is not officially released. Kindle Fire HD is having nearly 11 hours of battery life. With larger display, high performance processor Kindle Fire HD 8.9 will be have lesser battery life and it will probably settle for around 8 hours.
Wrapping Up
Kindle Fire HD 8.9 is another great tablet from Kindle. It’s light weight- only 567g, thin body design and having great Full HD display. All the other hardware specifications are high end too. I’m not a big fan of themed and customized Android. I love pure Android flavor. Highly customized ICS is one drawback for me, yet it’s your personal choice.
Let’s take a look at price tags. It’s $299 for Kindle Fire HD 8.9 and $449 for LTE version. You have to decide whether you should pay extra 200 bucks for 3G and LTE or stick to Wi-fi.
There are very few Full HD android tablets in the market yet. Asus Transformer Infinity and Acer Iconia A700 are some of them. Kindle Fire HD 8.9 will be able to give them a solid competition in the market with its powerful hardware muscle and attractive price tag.
Android has now officially become the most popular and most used mobile operating system. It’s spread across a variety of devices in different manufactures and price ranges. One common thing about Android Smartphone is they have relatively bigger screens. Sometimes manufactures build larger screen to deliver unique user experience. Now it has been taken to the next step with even bigger Android Screen Size. The device going beyond the boundary is ViewSonic VCD22.
The main hook in this device is its massive screen. It’s having 22 inch display. You can’t call it a tablet and not even a PC. It’s a different category of devices and ViewSonic call it ‘All-in-one’ PC. Let’s take a closer look in to this device specification.
Device Specification
Processor and Storage
Device powered with 1GHzDual Core Cortex A9 processor running on TI OMAP 4428 chipset. RAM is 1 GB and there are no official records of internal storage. It’s coming with SD card slot, but it will act more as a card reader than an expandable storage port.
Operating System
This comes with Android 4.0 ICS. However they must have done some serious alteration to OS to work with its massive screen. Other than that other android tablet customization also will be there and you will notice them in the first look, especially in soft buttons.
Display
This is the magic here. ViewSonic VCD 22 comes with 22” LCD display with resolution 1920 X 1080 which will give you 100 ppi pixel density. This is ideal configuration for desktop monitor and will work great with this All-in-One computer as well.
Connectivity and Interfaces
When it comes to connectivity this is having Ethernet, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Using them you can access internet, pair this device with another support device and connect an external multimedia device.
There are 3 USB ports where you can connect any supported device, may be mouse and keyboard. In addition there is a HDMI port, SD card slot and 3.5 mm audio out.
Camera
There is a front facing 1.2 MP camera which will let you do video chatting. There won’t be a rear camera since this is not a portable device.
Wrapping Up
It’s a great idea to power up ‘All-in-One’ PC with Android. And yes, it will be a smart idea since Android can work great with minimum hardware resource than desktop OS and at the same time perform most of the common tasks.
You won’t be able to find a built-in battery in this device and you better have a UPS to power this up. Further, you will have to purchase a keyboard and mouse separately if you need them.
There can be various creative applications of this kind of devices. The main thing that comes to my mind is public information points. You can place these devices wherever necessary and let the public to access them and get any information they need. This will work great in tourist attractions. And you can use this to teach kids in schools as well as in home. Multimedia designers also will like this kind of device where they have touch controllers as well as keyboard and mouse. This also works great as a home multimedia system.
However, there will be very limited market for this ‘All-in-One’ computers including ViewSonic VCD22. Very few people out there will have this kind of specific requirement and most of them could be fulfilled by other tablets in market. So probably this won’t be a top selling device in the market.
Motorola had been a popular mobile phone brand for decades. They made their unique mark in early stage of analogue mobile phones as well as through the 2G and 3G era. When Android mobile OS come to play, they followed the trend and released many amazing handsets.
Down the way they separated mobile phone manufacturing division from the main company as Motorola Mobility. In 2012 Aug 15th Google acquired Motorola Mobility. The main objective of this acquisition is to manufacture better quality Android handsets for lower price.
Signature of the RAZR brand was their ultra thin mobile phone design. This was a great inspiration for other manufactures to do the same. RAZR brand is the initiator of the trend of ultra thin handsets we are enjoying today.
In 2012 September they announced another Android handset. In the first look, it’s same as any other RAZR. But when you take a look in to specification, it’s not the case. Motorola RAZR I XT890 is under NOG spotlight today.
Attractions in Motorola RAZR I XT890
Most of the specification in this phone is same as any other android phone. It’s having 4.3 inch super AMOLED display behind Corning gorilla glass with 540x960px resolution which gives it 256ppi of pixel density. Thickness is 8.3 mm and weight is 126 g.
It’s having all common connectivity features such as 3G, HSDPA, LTE, Wi-fi, BT, NFC and microUSB. RAM is 1GB and internal storage is 8 GB expandable via microSD slot up to 32 GB. It’s having 8MP shooter at back capable of taking HDR pictures and 1080p videos. Front facing camera is VGA. Everything is powerd by Android 4.0.4 ICS upgradable to 4.1 Jelly Bean.
After reading above specs you might ask “So what’s the catch about this phone?” The magic is in the processor.
Android on Intel Atom Processor
Intel Atom Processor is very popular for Netbook and Slate computers. It’s capable of running most desktop operating systems such as Windows 7 and Linux based Ubuntu. It’s consuming lesser energy and efficiency is at a greater level.
Android Mobile OS was originally designed to run on ARM processors. Almost all of Android handsets you can find in market are ARM based. Android is having a Linux core. So with some changes it should be able to run on mobile processes such as Intel Atom. Intel was working on this project for some time and they manage to introduce few prototype Android-Atom handsets as well.
Motorola RAZR I XT890 is having a 2GHz Intel Atom processor inside. Unlike many of other Android-Atom phones this have recent Android version 4.0 and upgradable to latest 4.1. This handset is having all the other modern features as well. This combination would be a new experience to Android users. And this could be a path changing handset which is having more processing power and better energy efficiency.
If you are a heavy user of eBooks, you know LCD, LED, IPS or AMOLED displays are definitely not the way to do it. The glare in display and sometimes lower refresh rate is giving you headache within few pages of reading.
Down the time Amazon, the biggest online book shop came up with a cool way to read eBooks called Amazon Kindle. It’s having electronic paper display also known as eInk display. This became a blast and they sold many devices within a short time.
eInk display is not having any backlit and not getting refreshed unless you flip a page. It’s capable of displaying only black and white content. Simply it’s a paper which can change its ink electronically. You will always need external light source to read it since it’s not backlit, a book light would be a great idea for late night reading.
Early Kindle was having 6 inch display and physical QWERTY keyboard and there was another version without keyboard as well. It was capable of web browsing and had Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity in some versions. 4th generation of Kindle came out with touch sensitive eInk display called as Kindle touch and it became a very interesting device among eBook junkies. Today I’m going to take a closer look in to this.
Device Configuration
Design
The design is simple as any other Kindle and it’s even smaller since there is no keyboard. Instead there is one home key. Other than that there are no physical keys. In the back panel at the bottom you can find stereo speakers. There is microUSB, 3.5mmaudioout and power button in bottom edge.
Processor and Storage
Processer in this device is 800 MHz Cortex A8 and having 4 GB internal storage, non expandable. For eBook reading practically this is like unlimited storage.
Display
This is the most interesting part here and its 6 inch eInk display with 600 x 800 pixels resolution which will give you 167 ppi pixel density. Its 16 level gray scale display optimized to display textual content.
Connectivity and Interfaces
USB connectivity is always there for you to transfer audio files. To download eBooks you can use Wi-Fi or built in 3G connectivity. You can always use 3G connectivity to access Wikipedia. However, web browsing is still an experimental feature in Kindle touch and you can use it only with Wi-Fi.
Battery Life
This is one great thing about all Kindle eBook readers, their battery last amazingly long. If you are reading eBooks for 30 minutes every day, your battery will last for nearly 1 month. This is like forever compared to other tablets and Smartphone.
Wrapping Up
Kindle Touch has taken the eInk display to its next level with entire on screen controller. However I’m missing physical keys to flip pages. You can access music player by tapping a page even while you are reading a book. Sometimes it’s nice to listen to some music while reading a book. The dictionary feature is also working great.
Since you are on a touch screen nothing stops you by using pinch to zoom. Its working great but eInk refresh rate is not the best for it, so I prefer old school double tap to zoom feature. Amazingly there is no more landscape which is a great minus point. Web browsing is also fine though it’s experimental.
If you are planning to buy Kindle Touch, there are few things to clear up. This is highly optimized for eBook reading and this is not a multipurpose tablet. It supports PDF, but to get the maximum experience you have to purchase Kindle friendly eBooks for Amazon. Finally there are two versions, with offers and without. If you hate to see Ads, go for without offers version and it will cost you some extra bucks.
